WAWOTA - Kati Van Winkoop graduated from the Wawota Parkland School with 16 other students on June 23.
Van Winkoop is the daughter of Kelvin and Elly Van Winkoop and was raised with her older sister Anna.
During her school years, she always enjoyed math and science, but chemistry was her favourite.
At the age of four, Van Winkoop began to figure skate. As she got older and wanted to be more competitive, she began to figure skate in Carlyle.
She not only took skating but began to dance at the age of six. By the time she was 14 years old, she hung up her dancing shoes to pursue skating instead.
Van Winkoop lived in Kenosee Lake her entire life, and is excited to see the changes that her next phase in life has to offer when she attends the University of Saskatchewan. She will have a roommate that she has never met and feels this will be a great way to make a new friend.
Being on the honour roll in Wawota, she was also the co-valedictorian.
Van Winkoop received several awards and scholarships, including the Senior Science Award and the Division IV RBC Math Award, but also was awarded the Â鶹ÊÓƵ East Cornerstone Teachers' Association Award.
The Access Communications Scholarship was also presented to Van Winkoop, along with an entrance scholarship to the University of Saskatchewan.
Van Winkoop has been working hard all summer at Club 19, where she has worked for five years, but gained a job at the Kenosee Minimart.
She feels her programming will be demanding and she will not have time to get a job during school.
Entering an engineering program, it will take her four years to complete her degree. When this is completed, she will enter for her master's for pharmaceutical.
It is her desire to develop and test medications that will be approved for use.
She said the degrees are a lot of work and will require her full attention while going to school.
“There will be a lot of studying and homework,” she said.